The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

Her voice was really, really weak.

Sigrid nodded slowly with a frown. She immediately started running back the way she came. But on the way, she saw the massive horde of monsters just running right towards her.

”I think you can ignore them.” Aria mumbled tiredly against her armor. ”They won’t hurt us. But it is better if we do not stay in their path.”

Sigrid nodded.

And what she did next was reckless. She rushed straight towards the monster horde, which was actually still pretty huge. And a few meters before she clashed with them, she put all of her power into her legs and jumped forward.

She leaped high over the front row of monsters.

But she was unable to cross the whole wave of monsters in a single jump. So she managed to land right on top of a massive running orc. She just used the monster’s massive shoulder as a stepping stone to keep her momentum going.

A few heavy jumps later, she cleared the entire sea of monsters and landed safely behind them.

She whipped around with her swords raised. but the monsters didn’t care. They just kept running blindly, completely ignoring her.

Sigrid just turned around and started running towards her own army, which she could see far away in the distance.

After almost one minute of running, she saw Draven.

Draven was kneeling on the wet ground. And lying right in front of him was basically a body that was completely red.

The clothes were soaked red. The face was a mangled mess of red, still fresh with bleeding wounds and bruises.

And that was when Sigrid realized that this was actually Adrian.

But even then, it was really hard to recognize him. It was just that she could tell it was him based on his body and the general build of his shoulders.

She slowed her running pace and actually contemplated if she should just take Aria away from here.

But Aria just pushed herself away from Sigrid. She jumped down from Sigrid’s arms and started walking towards Adrian really, really slowly.

It was almost like tiny body was unable to actually move, and she was just forcing it to.

Once she got to him, she knelt on the ground. She placed her small hand flat on his bloody chest.

And she felt it. His heart was still beating.

And the second she felt that faint, sluggish thump against her skin, she completely broke.

The tears just spilled over and snot dripped down her nostrils. She wiped her nose aggressively with her ruined sleeve, but she couldn’t stop crying.

She sat there shivering, staring down at his unrecognizable face.

She sucked in a ragged breath and exhaled heavily.

Then she dragged up the last bit of mana left inside her mana heart.

The spot right under her palm started to emit a faint, warm gold light. And that light spread all over his broken body.

This healing light stayed there for around thirty seconds before it faded away.

And at the same time Aria fainted.

She just fell forward, her small head landing straight onto Adrian’s chest.

Draven looked up at Sigrid, looking completely distraught and scared.

Sigrid just looked down at him, and then she glanced back at Adrian’s limp body.

”There is nothing we can do.” Sigrid pursed her lips and said slowly. ”We don’t really have healing mages or priests out here. And I don’t think the regular bandages and medicines that we have are going to work on him.”

She gripped her swords.

”Let’s take him back.” Sigrid said. ”And we need to contact the Duke for high-tier healing magic. We have to move right now... if we don’t hurry, he is going to bleed out.”

Draven nodded heavily.

He carefully picked Adrian up in his arms, while Sigrid leaned down and picked up the unconscious Aria.

The two of them rushed forward, heading back towards the territory walls.

And on the way, they saw the soldiers of Oresfall still marching forward.

Draven stopped right in front of them.

”Turn back and head back inside the walls!” Draven yelled at them. ”We have retrieved Adrian. And we will be asking for help to get him back to normal.”

And then he just started running again.

The Oresfall soldiers just stood there looking at Draven’s retreating back. And then they slowly looked at each other.

Some of them just dropped their shields and fell to the ground right there, while the others shakily just sat down. They didn’t even try to move forward anymore.

”If something happens to Lord Adrian...” one of the soldiers grumbled, gripping his sword tight. ”I will kill this Marquis. If we never came here for this stupid war, the Lord would be fine.”

The rest of the men just stared at him in dead silence.

Nobody argued. Looking around at their grim, dirty faces, it was obvious every single guard was thinking the exact same thing.

After a few seconds, another soldier spoke up.

”I don’t think the Lord would have wanted that.” the man whispered.

”What happens to our families if Lord Adrian dies here?” another soldier asked, his voice shaking. ”We can’t just let that happen.”

A few men just stared at their boots and gave slow, heavy nods.

A younger soldier sitting in the mud rubbed his dirty face.

”I don’t have a family.” the young guy muttered. ”But Lord Adrian saved me. I made a living... I used to survive just by stealing scraps in the back alleys. And I got the shit kicked out of me almost every single day. But I still survived.”

He looked at the wet ground between his feet.

”I was on the verge of starving when I saw the recruitment notice.” he continued, his voice dropping into a really sad tone. ”And I immediately moved to Oresfall and joined the army. I didn’t join because I was loyal, or because I loved or looked up to Lord Adrian. I didn’t even want to fight... but he promised free food.”

The young knight looked up, his eyes watering.

”And now I’ve come so far. I’m a knight now.” he whispered. ”But I still couldn’t do anything to help him.”